We Keep Coding

How to use a existing chrome installation with selenium webdriver?

I would like to use an existing installation of chrome (or firefox or brave browser) with selenium. Like that I could set prespecified settings / extensions (e.g. start nord-vpn when opening a new instance) that are active when the browser is opened with selenium.
I know there is selenium.webdriver.service with the "executeable-path" option, but it doesn't seem to work when you specify a specific chrome.exe, the usage seems to be for the chrome-driver only and then it still opens a "fresh" installation of chrome.
Starting selenium with extension-file I think is also not an option to use with the nord-vpn extension, as I have two-factor authentication active and login every single time would take too much time and effort, if possible at all.

Firefox profile
To use the existing installation of firefox you have to pass the profile path through set_preference() method using an instance of Option from selenium.webdriver.common.options as follows:
from selenium.webdriver import Firefox
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.firefox.service import Service
from selenium.webdriver.firefox.options import Options
profile_path = r'C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\s8543x41.default-release'
options=Options()
options.set_preference('profile', profile_path)
service = Service('C:\\BrowserDrivers\\geckodriver.exe')
driver = Firefox(service=service, options=options)
driver.get("https://www.google.com")
You can find a relevant detailed discussion in Error update preferences in Firefox profile: 'Options' object has no attribute 'update_preferences'
Chrome profile
Where as to use an existing installation of google-chrome you have to pass the user profile path through add_argument() using the user-data-dir key through an instance of Option from selenium.webdriver.common.options as follows:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service
options = Options()
options.add_argument("user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Default")
s = Service('C:\\BrowserDrivers\\chromedriver.exe')
driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=s, options=options)
driver.get("https://www.google.com/")
You can find a relevant detailed discussion in How to open a Chrome Profile through Python

Save cookie and User Data [duplicate]

So whenever I try to use my Chrome settings (the settings I use in the default browser) by adding
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("user-data-dir=C:\Users\... (my webdriver path)")
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="myPath", options=options)
it shows me the error code
SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes n 16-17: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape
in my bash. I don't know what that means and I'd be happy for any kind of help I can get. Thanks in advance!

The accepted answer is wrong. This is the official and correct way to do it:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument(r"--user-data-dir=C:\path\to\chrome\user\data") #e.g. C:\Users\You\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
options.add_argument(r'--profile-directory=YourProfileDir') #e.g. Profile 3
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r'C:\path\to\chromedriver.exe', chrome_options=options)
driver.get("https://www.google.co.in")
To find the profile folder on Windows right-click the desktop shortcut of the Chrome profile you want to use and go to properties -> shortcut and you will find it in the "target" text box.

To get the path, follow the steps below.
In the search bar type the following and press enter
This will then show all the metadata. There find the path to the profile

As per your question and your code trials if you want to open a Chrome Browsing Session here are the following options:
To use the default Chrome Profile:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\AtechM_03\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Default")
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r'C:\path\to\chromedriver.exe', chrome_options=options)
driver.get("https://www.google.co.in")
Note: Your default chrome profile would contain a lot of bookmarks, extensions, theme, cookies etc. Selenium may fail to load it. So as per the best practices create a new chrome profile for your #Test and store/save/configure within the profile the required data.
To use the customized Chrome Profile:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
options = Options()
options.add_argument("user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\AtechM_03\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Profile 2")
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r'C:\path\to\chromedriver.exe', chrome_options=options)
driver.get("https://www.google.co.in")
Here you will find a detailed discussion on How to open a Chrome Profile through Python

This is how I managed to use EXISTING CHROME PROFILE in php selenium webdriver.
Profile 6 is NOT my default profile. I dont know how to run default profile. It is IMPORTANT not to add -- before chrome option arguments! All other variants of options didnt work!
<?php
//...
$chromeOptions = new ChromeOptions();
$chromeOptions->addArguments([
'user-data-dir=C:/Users/MyUser/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data',
'profile-directory=Profile 6'
]);
$host = 'http://localhost:4444/wd/hub'; // this is the default
$capabilities = DesiredCapabilities::chrome();
$capabilities->setCapability(ChromeOptions::CAPABILITY, $chromeOptions);
$driver = RemoteWebDriver::create($host, $capabilities, 100000, 100000);
To get name of your chrome profile, go to chrome://settings/manageProfile, click on profile icon, click "Show profile shortcut on my desktop". After that right click on desktop profile icon and go to properties, here you will see something like "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --profile-directory="Profile 6".
Also I recommend you to close all chrome instances before running this code. Also maybe you need to TURN OFF chrome settings > advanced > system > "Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed".

None of the given answers were working for me so I researched a bit and now the working code is for is this one. I copied the user dir folder from Profile Path from chrome://version/ and made another argument for the profile as shown below:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument('user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\gupta\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data')
options.add_argument('profile-directory=Profile 1')
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r'C:\Program Files (x86)\chromedriver.exe', options=options)
driver.get('https://google.com')

Are you sure you are meant to be putting in the webdriver path in the user-data-dir argument? That's usually where you put your chrome profile e.g. "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Profile 1\". Also you will need to use either double backslashes or forward slashes in your directory path (both work). You can test if your path works by using the os library
e.g.
import os
os.list("C:\\Users\\yourusername\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Profile 1")
will give you the directory listing.
I might also add that occasionally if you manage to crash chrome while running webdriver with a nominated user profile, that it seems to record the crash in the profile and the next time you open chrome, you get the Chrome prompt to restore pages after it exited abnormally. For me personally this had been a bit of headache to deal with and I no longer use a user profile with chromedriver because of it. I could not find a way around it. Other people have reported it here, but none of their solutions seemed to work for me, or were not suitable for my test cases. https://superuser.com/questions/237608/how-to-hide-chrome-warning-after-crash
If you don't nominate a user profile it seems to create a new (blank) temporary one each time it runs

Make sure you've got the path to the profile right, and that you double escape backslashes in said path.
For example, typically the default profile on windows is located at:
"C:\\Users\\user\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Default"

I managed to launch my chrome profile using these arguments:
ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.addArguments("--user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\user\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data");
options.addArguments("--profile-directory=Profile 2");
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options);
You can find out more about the web driver here

You simply have to replace the '\' to '/' in your paths and that'll resolve it.

Get profile name by navigating to chrome://version from your chrome browser (You'll see Profile Path, but you only want the profile name from it (e.g. Profile 1)
Close out all Chrome sessions using the profile you want to use. (or else you will get the following error: InvalidArgumentException)
Now make sure you have the code below (Make sure you replace UserFolder with the name of your userfolder.
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\EnterYourUserFolder\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data") #leave out the profile
options.add_argument("profile-directory=Profile 1") #enter profile here
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\\chromedriver.exe", chrome_options=options)

this worked for me 100% and it showed up my selected profile.

import os
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
# path of your chrome webdriver
dir_path = os.getcwd()
user_profile_path = os.environ[ 'USERPROFILE' ]
#if "frtkpr" which is ll be your custom profile does not exist it will be created.
option.add_argument( "user-data-dir=" + user_profile_path + "/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data/frtkpr" )
driver = webdriver.Chrome( dir_path + "/chromedriver.exe",chrome_options=option )
baseUrl = "https://www.facebook.com/"
driver.maximize_window()
driver.get( baseUrl )

Open chromedriver in normal mode (no incognito) in selenium python in linux ubuntu? [duplicate]

I'd like to launch Chrome with its default profile using Python's webdriver so that cookies and site preferences persist across sessions.
How can I do that?

This is what finally got it working for me.
from selenium import webdriver
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("user-data-dir=C:\\Path") #Path to your chrome profile
w = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\\Users\\chromedriver.exe", chrome_options=options)
To find path to your chrome profile data you need to type chrome://version/ into address bar . For ex. mine is displayed as C:\Users\pc\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default, to use it in the script I had to exclude \Default\ so we end up with only C:\Users\pc\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data.
Also if you want to have separate profile just for selenium: replace the path with any other path and if it doesn't exist on start up chrome will create new profile and directory for it.

This solved my problem. (remove Default at the end)
from selenium import webdriver
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("--user-data-dir=/home/username/.config/google-chrome")
cls.driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options,
executable_path="./../ext/chromedriver")
Chrome_Options ist deprecated. Use options instead

I solved my problem with answer of "Yoannes Geissler".
In my case My profile was named "Profile 2"
My Code :
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument('--user-data-dir=C:/Users/GOD/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data')
options.add_argument('--profile-directory=Profile 2')
wd = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
The below line solved my problem:
options.add_argument('--profile-directory=Profile 2')

Just to share what worked for me. Using default's profile was complicated, chrome keeps crashing.
from pathlib import Path
from selenium import webdriver
driver_path = Path("{}/driver/chromedriver75.exe".format(PATH_TO_FOLDER))
user_data_dir = Path("{}/driver/User Data".format(PATH_TO_FOLDER))
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
# TELL WHERE IS THE DATA DIR
options.add_argument("--user-data-dir={}".format(user_data_dir))
# USE THIS IF YOU NEED TO HAVE MULTIPLE PROFILES
options.add_argument('--profile-directory=Default')
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=driver_path, options=options)
driver.get("https://google.com/")
By doing this Chrome will create the folder User Data and keep all the data in it where I want and it's easy to just move your project to another machine.

This answer is pretty simple and self-explained.
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
exec_path_chrome = "path/to/Google Chrome" #Do not use this path that is extracted from "chrome://version/"
exec_path_driver = "path/to/chromedriver"
ch_options = Options() #Chrome Options
ch_options.add_argument("user-data-dir = /path/to/Chrome Profile") #Extract this path from "chrome://version/"
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path = exec_path_driver, options = ch_options) #Chrome_Options is deprecated. So we use options instead.
driver.get("https://stackoverflow.com/a/57894065/4061346")
As #MadRabbit said type chrome://version/ into the address bar to find the path to your chrome profile data.
It appears like this in Windows C:\Users\pc\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
It appears like this in Mac /Users/user/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default
So all you have to do is to erase the last portion Default from the profile path.
Note: Make sure you don't run more than one session at the same time to avoid problems.

This is what I did.
import chromedriver_binary
chrome_options = Options()
chrome_options.add_experimental_option("detach", True)
chrome_options.add_argument(r"--user-data-dir=User Data Directory")
chrome_options.add_argument(r"--profile-directory=Profile name")
chrome_options.add_experimental_option("useAutomationExtension", False)
chrome_options.add_experimental_option("excludeSwitches",["enable
logging"])
chrome_options.add_experimental_option("excludeSwitches", ["enable
automation"])
chrome_options.add_argument("start-maximized")
self.driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=chrome_options)
self.wait = WebDriverWait(self.driver, 20)
Here we do not need to give the chrome driver path.

How to use Chrome Profile in Selenium Webdriver Python 3

So whenever I try to use my Chrome settings (the settings I use in the default browser) by adding
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("user-data-dir=C:\Users\... (my webdriver path)")
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="myPath", options=options)
it shows me the error code
SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes n 16-17: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape
in my bash. I don't know what that means and I'd be happy for any kind of help I can get. Thanks in advance!

The accepted answer is wrong. This is the official and correct way to do it:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument(r"--user-data-dir=C:\path\to\chrome\user\data") #e.g. C:\Users\You\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
options.add_argument(r'--profile-directory=YourProfileDir') #e.g. Profile 3
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r'C:\path\to\chromedriver.exe', chrome_options=options)
driver.get("https://www.google.co.in")
To find the profile folder on Windows right-click the desktop shortcut of the Chrome profile you want to use and go to properties -> shortcut and you will find it in the "target" text box.

To get the path, follow the steps below.
In the search bar type the following and press enter
This will then show all the metadata. There find the path to the profile

As per your question and your code trials if you want to open a Chrome Browsing Session here are the following options:
To use the default Chrome Profile:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\AtechM_03\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Default")
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r'C:\path\to\chromedriver.exe', chrome_options=options)
driver.get("https://www.google.co.in")
Note: Your default chrome profile would contain a lot of bookmarks, extensions, theme, cookies etc. Selenium may fail to load it. So as per the best practices create a new chrome profile for your #Test and store/save/configure within the profile the required data.
To use the customized Chrome Profile:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
options = Options()
options.add_argument("user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\AtechM_03\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Profile 2")
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r'C:\path\to\chromedriver.exe', chrome_options=options)
driver.get("https://www.google.co.in")
Here you will find a detailed discussion on How to open a Chrome Profile through Python

This is how I managed to use EXISTING CHROME PROFILE in php selenium webdriver.
Profile 6 is NOT my default profile. I dont know how to run default profile. It is IMPORTANT not to add -- before chrome option arguments! All other variants of options didnt work!
<?php
//...
$chromeOptions = new ChromeOptions();
$chromeOptions->addArguments([
'user-data-dir=C:/Users/MyUser/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data',
'profile-directory=Profile 6'
]);
$host = 'http://localhost:4444/wd/hub'; // this is the default
$capabilities = DesiredCapabilities::chrome();
$capabilities->setCapability(ChromeOptions::CAPABILITY, $chromeOptions);
$driver = RemoteWebDriver::create($host, $capabilities, 100000, 100000);
To get name of your chrome profile, go to chrome://settings/manageProfile, click on profile icon, click "Show profile shortcut on my desktop". After that right click on desktop profile icon and go to properties, here you will see something like "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --profile-directory="Profile 6".
Also I recommend you to close all chrome instances before running this code. Also maybe you need to TURN OFF chrome settings > advanced > system > "Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed".

None of the given answers were working for me so I researched a bit and now the working code is for is this one. I copied the user dir folder from Profile Path from chrome://version/ and made another argument for the profile as shown below:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument('user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\gupta\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data')
options.add_argument('profile-directory=Profile 1')
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r'C:\Program Files (x86)\chromedriver.exe', options=options)
driver.get('https://google.com')

Are you sure you are meant to be putting in the webdriver path in the user-data-dir argument? That's usually where you put your chrome profile e.g. "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Profile 1\". Also you will need to use either double backslashes or forward slashes in your directory path (both work). You can test if your path works by using the os library
e.g.
import os
os.list("C:\\Users\\yourusername\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Profile 1")
will give you the directory listing.
I might also add that occasionally if you manage to crash chrome while running webdriver with a nominated user profile, that it seems to record the crash in the profile and the next time you open chrome, you get the Chrome prompt to restore pages after it exited abnormally. For me personally this had been a bit of headache to deal with and I no longer use a user profile with chromedriver because of it. I could not find a way around it. Other people have reported it here, but none of their solutions seemed to work for me, or were not suitable for my test cases. https://superuser.com/questions/237608/how-to-hide-chrome-warning-after-crash
If you don't nominate a user profile it seems to create a new (blank) temporary one each time it runs

Make sure you've got the path to the profile right, and that you double escape backslashes in said path.
For example, typically the default profile on windows is located at:
"C:\\Users\\user\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Default"

I managed to launch my chrome profile using these arguments:
ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.addArguments("--user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\user\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data");
options.addArguments("--profile-directory=Profile 2");
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options);
You can find out more about the web driver here

You simply have to replace the '\' to '/' in your paths and that'll resolve it.

Get profile name by navigating to chrome://version from your chrome browser (You'll see Profile Path, but you only want the profile name from it (e.g. Profile 1)
Close out all Chrome sessions using the profile you want to use. (or else you will get the following error: InvalidArgumentException)
Now make sure you have the code below (Make sure you replace UserFolder with the name of your userfolder.
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\EnterYourUserFolder\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data") #leave out the profile
options.add_argument("profile-directory=Profile 1") #enter profile here
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\\chromedriver.exe", chrome_options=options)

this worked for me 100% and it showed up my selected profile.

import os
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
# path of your chrome webdriver
dir_path = os.getcwd()
user_profile_path = os.environ[ 'USERPROFILE' ]
#if "frtkpr" which is ll be your custom profile does not exist it will be created.
option.add_argument( "user-data-dir=" + user_profile_path + "/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data/frtkpr" )
driver = webdriver.Chrome( dir_path + "/chromedriver.exe",chrome_options=option )
baseUrl = "https://www.facebook.com/"
driver.maximize_window()
driver.get( baseUrl )

how can I use selenium with my normal browser

Is it possible to connect selenium to the browser I use normally instead a driver? For normal browsing I am using chrome with several plugins - add block plus, flashblock and several more. I want to try to load a site using this specific configuration. How can I do that?
p.s - I dont want to connect only to an open browser like in this question :
How to connect to an already open browser?
I dont care if I spawn the process using a driver. I just want the full browser configuration - cookies,plugins,fonts etc.
Thanks

First, you need to download the ChromeDriver, then either put the path to the executeable to the PATH environment variable, or pass the path in the executable_path argument:
from selenium import webdriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path='/path/to/executeable/chrome/driver')
In order to load extensions, you would need to set ChromeOptions:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_extension('Adblock-Plus_v1.4.1.crx')
driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=options)
You can also save the chrome user profile you have and load it to the ChromeDriver:
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument('--user-data-dir=/path/to/my/profile')
driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=options)
See also:
Running Selenium WebDriver using Python with extensions (.crx files)
ChromeDriver capabilities/options